Several of my colleagues are today observing the tenth anniversary of the massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado.
As we look back on that terrible day, many Americans try to sort out what led to the event, and what might be done in the future to prevent another such tragedy.
The answer is alarmingly simple, and nobody is going to like it.
We cannot prevent more Columbines. There it is. If we could, there would have been no Virginia Tech. The shooting at Red Lake High School in Minnesota would not have happened. We would never have read about the shooting at Northern Illinois University.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and its state-level colleagues at various “CeaseFire” groups argue that “closing the gun show loophole” will help. That’s preposterous and they know it. While Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris obtained at least a couple of guns from an adult friend who legally bought them at a gun show, in the years since, none of the gunmen who shot up any school or shopping mall has gotten his guns from a gun show.
People call Columbine the worst school massacre in the country’s history, but that’s also a lie. Nobody remembers the Bath School bombing in May 1927 in which a disgruntled school board member named Andrew Kehoe blew up the Bath Consolidated School and killed 45 people, most of them elementary school-age children. He used dynamite, and he didn’t get it at a gun show.
The perpetrator was school board member Andrew Kehoe, who was upset by a property tax that had been levied to fund the construction of the school building.
Can we take steps to minimize the likelihood of future Columbines? Sure.
Step One: Abolish gun-free school zones and those insidious “zero tolerance” rules that victimize and demonize students who are now afraid to talk about hunting, target shooting or competition; rules that prevent teachers or administrators from having a firearm. Instead of firing those teachers, fire the Chicken Little administrators and replace the school board members – and their attorneys – who cling to zero tolerance and gun free zone mandates as substitutes for common sense and courage. (I wrote about this with co-author Alan Gottlieb in our book America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age)
Assistant Principal Joel Myrick stopped a school gunman at Pearl, MS on Oct. 1, 1997 – 19 months before Columbine – by rushing to his car, grabbing a pistol he had there, and confronting gunman Luke Woodham, who quickly surrendered rather than get shot. Myrick hardly gets mentioned these days because he used a handgun to stop a killer, much the same as the armed students who interceded at the Apalachian Law School shooting are essentially ignored.
Step Two: Schools should pin medals on students like Jacob Ryker, the hero teen of Thurston High School in Springfield, OR in May 1998 – 11 months before Columbine – who understood quickly “from his own experience with guns” that teen gunman Kip Kinkel had run out of ammunition and tackled him. Ryker was shot in the melee, but he got in some good licks on the little scumbag before the authorities arrived and took Kinkel into custody. Schools should encourage other teens like Ryker, they should offer classes in firearm safety and hunter education as part of the curriculum.
When his rifle ran out of ammunition and Kinkel began to reload, wounded student Jacob Ryker—recognizing from his own experience with guns that Kinkel was out of ammunition (and understood that this was the best chance to stop Kinkel)—tackled him, and was soon assisted by several other students.
Step Three: Instead of marginalizing gun owners and groups like the NRA, the news media needs a philosophical overhaul, after which it should marginalize gun prohibitionists and groups like the Brady Campaign. For decades, we’ve tried it their way with increasingly strict and intolerant rules that border on the insane, and all we have to show for it is a list of tragedies and a body count.
It should be noted for the record that, like school board member Andrew Kehoe, who murdered his wife before committing his atrocity, Woodham killed his mother and Kinkel murdered both of his parents.
What we learn from Columbine and other shootings is that gun control groups exploit such tragedies for their own political ends. They pretty much dance in the blood of the victims to push an agenda that may, but usually does not, have anything remotely to do with the crime they are condemning. Their goal is disarmament -- victim disarmament, if you will -- and they don't seem to grasp the fact that if people are caught in imminent life-threatening situations and cannot fight back, they frequently die.
The “real lesson of Columbine,” if there must be one is that we should have taken a lesson from Pearl High School and Thurston High School.
Alas, gun-phobic school administrators and teachers, and gun-hating politicians, continue with their heads in the sand, and other dark places, enforce a philosophy and defend laws that haven't worked, and that will only give us more of the same.
Here's what other Gun Rights Examiners say about Columbine:
And the new entry from Mike Stollenwerk
For more info: America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age
Comments
If Dave Sanders, or other teachers had been allowed to be armed, I seriously doubt he and many others would be memorialized ten years later, except as live heros.
Only the evil and mentally ill call for more gun control.
There really isn't anymore to be said. That covers it.
From the source used in the article re the Thurston High shooting, "He was later placed in psychotherapy, where Kinkel was diagnosed with clinical depression. Kinkel had a strong interest in guns and bombs from an early age. His father at first denied his son's attraction to firearms and explosives, but later signed up his son for gun safety courses, and bought him a .22 caliber Long Rifle and eventually a 9mm Glock handgun when Kip was fifteen. According to Kinkel, his psychiatrist Jeffrey Hicks told Bill Kinkel to "let Kip have the guns, for it will be a good outlet."
Yes, that was a good idea wasn't it? Diagnosed with clinical depression and guns would be a good outlet.
Workman reckons we should learn from the Thurston experience. I agree, don't make gun access so ridiculously easy.
Pottering,
You seem to be missing the points. Restricting access to firearms ain't gonna solve anything. But, the more people can defend themselves, the less likely a massacre will occur.
I know it's a scary, grown up like thing, but here in America there are risks. The risk you might lose your job, risk your business might fail (particularly if the government weighs in and helps make that happen), risk someone might say something that offends you, and the risk that a madman might kill you if you've consigned your life, well being, and defense of both to others.
Outstandingly well said, Mr. Workman.
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